10 scary documentaries on Netflix for Halloween 2021

American Murder: The Family Next Door

Release Year: 2020

Directed by Jenny Popplewell

If you find true crime scary, you will enjoy watching American Murder: The Family Next Door. This Netflix documentary is a quick watch at 1 hour and 22 minutes, but it will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. American Murder is a horrifying story about Christopher Watts murdering his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their two young daughters.

Based on Shanann’s social media accounts, you would think they had the perfect family life. Shanann and their daughters looked happy. Christopher appeared to be a loving and caring husband and father. But hidden in their house, Christopher and Shanann had marital problems, and Christopher wasn’t faithful to his wife. While watching this documentary, it isn’t easy to imagine Christopher’s thoughts and actions. Watching everything unfold with cop cameras and family friends’ videos is intriguing.

American Murder: The Family Next Door is a gruesome tragedy. This film is eerily intimate but expansive enough to reflect the distance between the online performance of a happy marriage and the haunting truth of a relationship’s unraveling. Christopher Watts pleaded guilty in 2018, so this is a new true crime story that is a must-watch if you haven’t seen it yet.